The College Of The Resurrection, based in Mirfield, is a theological college in the Anglican Communion that shares its life with a monastic community. Each year a couple of their first year students come on placement to Bradford Cathedral, and this year we introduce Josh Harris (left) and Joe Grogan (right), who are both training for the Priesthood. We spoke to them this month to find out more about them.
Josh:
“I grew up in a church family; my mother was a vcar so I’m familiar with some aspects of the role, but lots of it is new to me, which is why I’m excited to be at Bradford Cathedral, learning what ministry is like in a Cathedral context.
“Seeing the amount of work that goes on across all the departments is amazing. I’ve not worked in a church this large before, and I’ve been blown away by how much effort everyone puts into the jobs.
“Yesterday we worked with the music department and I saw the logistics involved, arranging all the young singers and the choral scholars, and all the work that went into selecting the right music. It’s really fascinating to see staff putting such effort into building the church community.”
Joe:
“I’m also a first-year ordinand at Mirfield, training for the priesthood. I grew up in Shropshire, in a Baptist church, but came into the Church of England when I was at University down in Oxford.
“I came into the Church of England through choral music as an organ scholar, so I’ve seen the musical side of larger churches before, but seeing how that works with other departments is particularly fascinating to me – how the music department recruits, as well as how the educational side comes in.
“I’m very excited to be observing with them on a school visit tomorrow.”
Josh and Joe are both training for three years, and Josh explained to us how this works.
“We’re doing a BA degree – validated by Durham University – which is a Church of England common award, which is what Ordinands across the country do.
“Following the completion of our training, we’ll hopefully be ordained as a Deacon in the first year and Priest in the second year, and then do a curacy, which is like on-the-job training. We’re currently doing a lot of work learning about the church; Biblical study; studying pastoral care, which we can then put into practice.”
Josh and Joe started by coming to the Cathedral on Sundays in October and will be here until around half-way through Lent in 2023, and were in the Cathedral full time for one week in January as they shadowed various departments.
Joe told us more about what they’ll be doing at Bradford Cathedral.
“There will be other periods where we’ll be joining in with Cathedral activities.
“We’re both hoping to get slightly different things out of it, just as we’ve had different experiences before getting here. For me it’s learning about how Bradford operates in a Diocese with three cathedrals, and how they interplay. Josh is looking at how Bradford balances its civic role with its parish side. We’re both keen on looking at how all the Cathedral departments interact, in a context that is larger than your average parish church.”
Josh and Joe are keen to meet members of the Cathedral congregation.
“If you see us around, please come and say hello. It has been wonderful to get to know the people that we’ve already met, but there are always others to meet. It’s fascinating to hear everyone’s stories, especially in such a vibrant community as this.
“If you see us after a service, please come and speak to us over a coffee!”
You can also look out for Josh and Joe preaching sermons at future services at Bradford Cathedral.
You can find out more about the College of the Resurrection on their website.